LIHU‘E — Unnoticed by the crews from the Kikiaola Construction and Da Tow Truck, Wednesday, Vince Tabura of the Wilcox Medical Center Maintenance Department quietly slipped to one of two 500-kilowatt generators while the crews tended to loading the big generator.
“Thirty years,” Tabura said, patting the generator’s cowling. “A lot of good memories…Hurricane Iniki. Thank you.”
The two generators were retired from emergency medical use following the installation of three new one-megawatt emergency generators that, according to the Kikiaola crew, was lifted straight up using a crane and dropped into place. The retiring generators were worked to where they could be safely removed from the building for transport to the county’s Waste Water Management Division.
The County of Kaua‘i Department of Public Works accepted the donation of the two 500-kilowatt emergency generators that will be used by the Waste Water Management Division to help add a level of reliability to its operations, states a release from Wilcox Health. Each of the generators have an estimated value of $75,000, said Andy Bestwick of the Wilcox Foundation.
“While the two 500-kilowatt emergency generators are no longer suitable for emergency medical use, they are still viable, and we are happy to see that they can still be put to good use for the benefit of our community,” said Wilcox Medical Center President and CEO Jen Chahanovich. “As a not-for-profit medical center, we are often on the receiving end of our community’s generosity and support, so we are proud to have this opportunity to reciprocate with this donation to the County of Kaua‘i.”
Wilcox transferred power to the three new one-megawatt emergency generators on May 15. The new system that includes the three new generators along with new automatic transfer switches and upgraded transformers, will provide backup emergency power for the entire Wilcox Medical Center campus. The generator system supports critical hospital operators and is essential to providing medical care during power outages.
“This generous donation by Wilcox Health will go a long way toward building resiliency in our waste water infrastructure, and our North Shore emergency response needs,” said Kaua‘i Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami. “We are grateful to have partners like Jen and her team in helping to protect our island community.”
As Kaua‘i’s only Level III trauma center, this new system upgrade increases Wilcox’s power capacity and provides cost effective, uninterrupted power to support both critical and routine hospital operations in the event of power outages, including those caused by natural disasters like hurricanes.
The $13 million project was supported by a partnership with the Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency that helped secure a $4 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency through the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
